The present invention relates to a fabric head wrap or hair covering particularly useful to be worn when the head rests against another surface, such as a pillow during sleep.
While sleeping, a person who has a hairstyle that she wishes to preserve would prefer that her hair not rub on a pillow or surface on which she is lying, as that may mess the hairstyle. To prevent that, a hair covering such as a bonnet, scarf or other wrap, is applied on or wrapped around the head to hold the hairstyle in place. However, when the head with the hair wrap lies on a pillow, especially during sleep when the head moves periodically, the fabric of the head wrap will drag on the fabric of the pillow and possibly cause the head wrap to slide over or off the hair, disturbing the hairstyle beneath the wrap.
An additional problem experienced by many women of African descent is that their hair breaks easily. Much hair breakage among such women occurs during the night due to rubbing and friction between the hair and the pillow. Additionally, their hair is difficult to manage and to style. As a result, many women of African descent sleep wearing a fabric head wrap.
Head wraps come in various shapes and styles including a bonnet, a cap, a scarf, a smaller wrap covering less than the entire head, etc.
The art has attempted to avoid the problem of friction between the hair and the pillow by providing a wrap for the head wherein the pillow contacting surface of the wrap is of a fabric or material that is likely to slide over the surface of the pillow rather than to be restrained by it. Satin is used for many head wraps because it is slippery and reduces friction and rubbing against a pillow. Unfortunately, a satin head wrap is also slippery on the inside against the hair. That can cause a problem for a wearer during sleep because the slippery interior of the wrap tends to slide off the hair during the night. For this reason, many wearers of head wraps avoid the use of satin wraps altogether.
To solve this problem, prior art shows two layer head coverings, including a first slippery layer on the outside that rests against the pillow and a less slippery or rougher second layer on the inside that contacts the hair with sufficient friction that the head wrap will not slide off the hair. An example of this is in U.S. Pat. No. 3,561,455.
Other two layer head coverings, although perhaps not of the slide preventing type that the Applicant here proposes, are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,889,298; 6,567,991; 6,799,581; and U.S. Publication 2006/0162046.